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Thread: Grant Hayes Sentenced in 2011 NC Dismemberment Death of Laura Ackerson

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    Grant Hayes Sentenced in 2011 NC Dismemberment Death of Laura Ackerson




    Laura Ackerson

    KINSTON, N.C. — A grand jury has indicted a man and wife on a charge of first-degree murder in the death of a Kinston woman whose dismembered body was found last month in Texas.

    The Kinston Free Press reported ( http://bit.ly/rgRdOm) that a Wake County grand jury returned the indictment Monday against 32-year-old Grant Ruffin Hayes III and his wife, 39-year-old Amanda Hayes. They're charged in the death of 27-year-old Laura Ackerson, who had two children with Grant Hayes

    The Hayeses remain in the Wake County Jail without bond. James Freeman of the Wake County Public Defender's Office has been appointed to represent Grant Hayes, and attorney Hart Miles has been appointed to represent Amanda Hayes.

    Parts of Ackerson's body were found in July in a creek in Fort Bend County, Texas.

    Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...#ixzz1V6NEKfpQ

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    One Suspect In Ackerson Murder Due In Court

    LENOIR COUNTY -- The woman charged with the dismemberment of a Kinston mother is due back in a Raleigh courtroom Monday.

    Amanda Hayes and her husband Grant Hayes are accused of murdering Laura Ackerson and dumping her body in Texas.

    27-year-old Ackerson's body was discovered July 24.

    A judge told the Hayes that they were "looking at a potential death penalty or life without parole."

    Court documents show that a machete has been included as evidence in the case.

    Two juveniles, who were inside the 1505 Holman Street residence at the time the two suspects were taken into custody, were assessed by Child Protective Services personnel and have been released to the custody of family members.

    Ackerson is an ex-girlfriend of Grant Hayes and the mother of two of his children.

    http://www.wcti12.com/news/28866696/detail.html

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    Autopsy In For Laura Ackerson

    The autopsy is complete on Laura Ackerson of Kinston, but the findings are decidedly incomplete. The Kinston Free Press reported Wednesday that the medical examiner could not conclude what killed Ackerson, the Kinston mother of two who disappeared in July.

    Her remains were found in a creek in Texas, and the report says the waterlogged remains were decaying. That complicates a medical examiner being able to determine what killed the slain mother.

    Ackerson's ex-boyfriend and his new wife, Grant and Amanda Hayes, remain behind bars in Raleigh, charged with Ackerson's murder.

    http://www.witn.com/news/headlines/A...ySection=story

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    Warrants: Hayes may have lured Ackerson

    Newly released search warrants in the alleged murder of Laura Ackerson show the father of her two toddler sons asked her to stop by his apartment.

    According to the warrant, "... It was determined that prior to her death, Laura Ackerson received a message from Grant Haze to visit the children at his residence on the evening of July 13, 2011."

    Investigators found conversations between Ackerson and Hayes after searching various e-mail accounts. In the warrant made publice Monday, investigators say they're looking for "any other e-mails that may reveal planning or motivation for the murder of Laura Ackerson."

    Ackerson's remains were found in Oyster Creek near Skinner Lane in Richmond, Texas this past July. Identification was made through dental records days later. The 27-year-old was reported missing on July 18.

    Raleigh police arrested and charged the father of Ackerson's two sons, 32-year-old Grant Ruffin Hayes, and his wife, 39-year-old Amanda Perry Hayes with murder in connection with Ackerson's death.

    Texas deputies said they believed Ackerson was killed in North Carolina, and then dismembered, before her body was taken to Texas in coolers. The creek where the remains were found is near Amanda Hayes's sister's home.

    Ackerson and Hayes had been involved in a custody battle over their children for more than a year. Hayes was granted primary custody in 2010.

    Grant Hayes is a local musician in Raleigh, who is known by the stage name, Grant Haze - which the warrants note.

    http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?se...cal&id=8394730

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    No death penalty in Ackerson murder case

    Prosecutors said Thursday they will not seek the death penalty in the murder of a Kinston mother whose dismembered body was found in a Texas creek.

    Thirty-two-year-old Grant Ruffin Hayes, and his wife, 39-year-old Amanda Perry Hayes, are charged with murder in connection with Laura Ackerson's death.

    Ackerson's remains were found in Oyster Creek near Skinner Lane in Richmond, Texas this past July. Identification was made through dental records days later. The 27-year-old was reported missing on July 18.

    Texas deputies said they believed Ackerson was killed in North Carolina, and then dismembered, before her body was taken to Texas in coolers. The creek where the remains were found is near Amanda Hayes's sister's home.

    Ackerson and Hayes had been involved in a custody battle over their children for more than a year. Hayes was granted primary custody in 2010.

    Grant Hayes is a local musician in Raleigh, who is known by the stage name, Grant Haze.

    http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?se...cal&id=8468594

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    Ackerson Autopsy Released

    The coroner with the State Medical Examiner’s Office says the official cause of death is undetermined for Laura Ackerson, but does believe that the Kinston native likely died of strangulation.

    9 On Your Side obtained a copy of the autopsy report Wednesday.

    Laura Ackerson is the Kinston woman was killed, dismembered and dumped into a creek in Texas last summer.

    Her ex-boyfriend and his wife have been charged in that murder. The creek was behind the home of a relative of the wife.

    http://www2.wnct.com/news/2012/may/0...ed-ar-2236018/
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    Kinston woman's death was domestic violence

    Wake County prosecutors getting ready to try a Raleigh man and his wife in the 2011 murder of a Kinston woman say the crime was a case of domestic violence.

    Grant Ruffin Hayes, 33, and Amanda Perry Hayes, 40, are both charged with first-degree murder in the July 2011 death of Grant Hayes' ex-girlfriend and the mother of two of his children, Laura Jean Ackerson.

    Ackerson's remains were found July 24, 2011, in a creek in Richmond, Texas – about 60 miles south of Houston – where Amanda Hayes' sister lives.

    "Grant Hayes wanted to remove Laura Ackerson from his life," Assistant District Attorney Boz Zellinger told Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens Monday during a hearing to decide whether the couple should be prosecuted together when the case goes to trial May 20.

    Stephens continued the hearing for 30 days to give attorneys for the Hayeses time to discuss their defense strategies and to decide whether
    trying the couple together would be detrimental to their clients.

    Zellinger's characterization of the case as being domestic violence is the first time authorities have publicly spoken about a motive for the killing. Family members, however, have said Grant Hayes and Ackerson, 27, had been involved in a contentious child custody battle.

    Zellinger told Stephens that there was a "tremendous amount" of evidence against Grant Hayes and that Amanda Hayes confided in her sister in Texas that she helped kill Ackerson and was covering for him.

    "She said she had hurt Laura and Laura was dead." Zellinger said, relating a conversation between the two women.

    How Ackerson died is unclear. Medical examiners found injuries that suggested a sharp force injury to her neck, but there were also signs that someone tried to strangle her.

    Texas authorities who found Ackerson's body and later turned the case over to Raleigh police, say they believe the Hayeses killed Ackerson, cut up her body and carried it in coolers to Texas, where they disposed of her remains in the creek.

    http://www.wral.com/wake-prosecutor-...ence/12063079/
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    Judge: Couple charged with killing, dismembering NC mother will be tried together

    A man and wife charged in the death of a Kinston woman whose dismembered body was found in Texas will be tried together.

    A judge ruled Friday that 33-year-old Grant Ruffin Hayes III and his wife, 40-year-old Amanda Hayes, go on trial together later this year.

    The Hayeses are charged with first-degree murder in the death of 27-year-old Laura Ackerson, who had two children with Grant Hayes.

    Parts of Ackerson's body were found in July 2011 in a creek in Fort Bend County, Texas. Investigators have said they think Ackerson was slain in North Carolina before her killers hauled her dismembered body in coolers to Texas for disposal.

    http://www.therepublic.com/view/stor...embered-Mother
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    Trial strategy revealed in Grant Hayes murder case

    A Raleigh man accused of murdering the mother of his two children and cutting up her body is apparently going to claim his wife did the killing.

    The new information came out during a pre-trial hearing for Grant Hayes at the Wake County Justice Center Friday afternoon.

    Grant Hayes' attorneys want his sister-in-law to testify and say it was Grant's wife, Amanda, who killed Laura Ackerson.

    Ackerson was the mother of Grant Hayes' two oldest children and she had lost custody of them to Hayes and his wife, who also had a newborn baby of their own. Ackerson was fighting in court to get her kids back when her body parts were found in a Texas creek two years ago.

    Investigators say Grant and Amanda killed Ackerson, cut her body in pieces, put it in coolers and loaded it into a U-Haul trailer. They claim the couple then loaded up the kids and dragged the trailer on a family vacation to Amanda's sister's house in Texas where the body parts were dumped.

    Now, Grant Hayes' attorneys want Amanda's sister to testify for Grant sayin she relayed a conversation in which Amanda allegedly said she killed Ackerson.

    "She told me that Laura told her that because she took her kids, she was going to take her baby from her," said Grant Hayes' attorney William Durham. "She told me that that she shoved her. She said, 'I hurt her bad.' Those are statements against interest. Those are statements saying 'I hurt Laura,' and she later says that she says Laura was dead."

    It is still unclear whether Amanda Hayes' sister will testify in Grant's trial, which begins a week Aug. 26.

    The judge says he will wait until trial, possibly hearing from Amanda Hayes' sister outside the presence of the jury, before deciding whether she can testify.

    http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?se...cal&id=9208746
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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